Shipping and logistics
Demurrage and detention.
Demurrage is charged for a container sitting inside the terminal beyond its free time. Detention is charged for keeping the container outside the terminal too long. Both accrue daily, both are the importer's problem in practice, and almost every case traces to paperwork rather than to shipping.
The difference, and why it matters.
Demurrage runs while the container is still in the terminal, before you have collected it. The terminal wants the space and the carrier charges you for occupying it.
Detention runs after you have collected it and before you have returned the empty. The carrier wants the box back in circulation.
They are billed separately, sometimes by different parties, and a delay can trigger both in sequence: papers not ready means demurrage, then a slow unload means detention. Buyers who budget for one are surprised by the other.
What actually causes it.
In order of frequency, and none of them are shipping problems.
- 01
Documents late from origin
Original bills of lading in a courier bag behind the vessel, or a certificate that was never issued. The most common cause on Indonesian shipments and entirely a coordination failure.
- 02
A customs query
A description that does not match, a classification question, or an agency other than customs wanting to look. The container waits while somebody answers.
- 03
A missing import obligation
Registration, prior notice, a responsible person or a licence that had to exist before arrival. Discovered at the border, and it can take weeks.
- 04
No plan for the container
Nowhere to unload it, or a warehouse that cannot take it for four days. This one is entirely within a buyer's control and it still happens.
- 05
Public holidays at destination
A vessel arriving into a holiday period with limited terminal working. Foreseeable, and rarely factored in.
How to keep it near zero.
Have the complete document set before the vessel sails, and have your broker check it rather than receive it. This single habit removes most of the exposure.
Ask your forwarder what free time you have, in writing, at booking. It varies by carrier and by contract, and buyers who assume a standard period are occasionally very wrong.
Plan the unload before the box arrives, including a fallback if your warehouse is full. And where a delay is genuinely the carrier's or the terminal's, ask for the charges to be waived, because it is sometimes granted and never offered.
Questions buyers ask.
Can I claim demurrage back from my supplier?
Where the delay was caused by documents they were contractually responsible for, it is a legitimate conversation and it depends entirely on what the contract says. In practice, recovering it from an Indonesian producer is slow and often not worth the relationship, which is an argument for preventing it rather than pursuing it.
Does a letter of credit make this worse?
It can, because payment depends on a compliant document presentation and a discrepancy pauses everything while the container sits. Credits need careful drafting and a presentation checked before it goes to the bank, precisely because the clock is running.
Who tells me the free time?
Your forwarder or the carrier, and you should ask at booking rather than assume. It is negotiable on regular volumes, and buyers who ship frequently and never asked are leaving something on the table.
Read next.
Getting it on a ship
FCL, LCL, own consolidation or reefer, and the five costs that appear after the freight quote. Written for an archipelago.
What happens at customs
Who does what between the ship arriving and the goods leaving the port, and the four things that hold a container.
Export documents, by category
Four categories, four different sets of paperwork and almost no overlap. Built from the reference pages, so it cannot fall behind what is published.
Original, telex or seaway bill
Three ways to release a container, with completely different consequences if payment goes wrong. What each gives up.
Bill of lading
The bill of lading does three jobs at once, and the third one is why an original in the wrong hands can hold up a container that has already arrived.
Letter of credit
A bank promise to pay when named documents are presented exactly as specified. What it protects and what it very deliberately does not.
The packing list nobody reads
Buyers treat it as an inventory and authorities treat it as a cross-check. What must match, and what a mismatch triggers.
Why freight rates move
The rate from last quarter is gone. What drives container rates and how to buy against that.
How a reefer container works
A reefer is a machine, not a cold box. What it can do and the three ways shipments are lost.
Releasing your cargo
The container arrived and you cannot have it. What has to happen, in order, and where it stalls.
Shipping inland
No port of your own means a second country, a second leg and a decision about where to clear.
When a port is congested
Vessels waiting, containers stacked, nobody able to give a date. What helps and what does not.
Sourcing from Indonesia?
Tell us the product, the quantity and the destination. We come back with what it involves before anyone talks about money.